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I wrote this for the Comment section of The National (Abu Dhabi). The editor kindly permits reproduction of my work here ... I should add that I do not accuse all gilets jaunes, still less those shown in the clip, of behaving like hooligans though many do ...

After 10 weeks of violent unrest, the question is not just how flawed Emmanuel Macron has been in response to the gravest crisis of his presidency, but what has gone wrong with France?

The gilets jaunes protest movement has seen several people die and many more hurt, buildings set on fire, motorways blocked and businesses and jobs threatened.

In part at least, it presents an ugly caricature of a nation defiantly proud of its historically rebellious streak. When the original cause, the rocketing cost of fuel, was rendered academic by falling prices at the pump and the withdrawal of a proposed new green tax, attention merely shifted to other issues.

Readers will have gathered that I am not a great fan of blockades, where one group of people assume the right to stop everyone else going anywhere. I would allow them to demonstrate, and to ask for support, but not to impose the sort of disruption to life that we see on such a regular basis in France. I oppose capital punishment but might cheerfully guillotine anyone blockading fuel distribution depots and petrol stations (having first of course, filled their own tanks). Others will disagree and also question my belief that democracy by and large offers a reasonable if imperfect remedy, elections where the disgruntled can get rid of those in power who displease them. Here are my thoughts for The National, whose editor kindly permits reproduction here. The photo is another of those taken in Paris on Saturday by my friend and confrere Peter Allen ...

To be fair to the gilets jaunes, people voted in by no one to do anything but with a cause they wish to pursue all the same, they were not responsible for most of the appalling destruction and violence the world has seen in images from Paris ... blame the usual suspects: voyous, casseurs, fanatics whether or not attached to the far left or far right. I'll have more to say on this but here, with the consent of The National, is how I summarised Saturday's events ... with thanks to my friend and colleague Peter Allen for just one of the superb phoographs he took as the day progressed ...

Just now, the French president Emmanuel Macron probably has more on his mind than the long-awaited, much-delayed initiative he promises on how Islam in France should be organised. The weekend has seen widespread protests about the price of fuel at the pump. As ever, I am torn between admiration for the "up with this we shall not put" rebelliousness of the French and anger at the belief that it's perfectly OK to stop people going about their daily lives. At one blockade in Savoie, a women anxious to get her daughter to the doctor panicked when confronted by protestors and tried to drive on. She knocked over and killed a female demonstrator who probably had nothing to do with impeding her journey to the medical appointment. Desperately sad on all levels ...

But there remains the issue of whether a better, differently organised Islam would both satisfy Muslims and tackle extremism. I am grateful to The National for allowing me to reproduce my work here ...

A Muslim woman whose children attended the Mosaique youth centre in the small town of Ecquevilly, 35 minutes by train from Paris, wanted to go, too. But this was at a time when the town's Muslim community was under the influence of a charismatic but radical preacher. She insisted that there should be no music and no men present. The director of the centre explained that she would be most welcome provided she accepted the inclusive rules that applied to everyone. It was a clash of two strong minds, but the director's view prevailed and the woman started attending anyway.

That anecdote offers a bright footnote to the way Ecquevilly's more open-minded residents have coped with its unwanted status as a centre of dangerous Salafist indoctrination. I spent two days there trying to make sense of it all for The National, Abu Dhabi.

If attempts to rid Ecquevilly of a negative image are to succeed, that will in no small part be the result of the strength of character of that director of Moasique, Idriss Amazouz, quoted blow. The National, as ever, consents to the reproduction of my work here ... but I would also like to thanks two fine journalists from the French daly newspaper La Croix, Flore Thomasset and Anne-Bénédicte Hoffner, whose epic coverage stretching to several pages was the insertion for my own visit ...

I shall do three things in respect of this weekend's 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the Great War. I shall reproduce two articles written many years ago which touched the horrendous events of 1914-1918, and I post (above) a clip of June Tabor singing the finest version I have heard of Eric Bogle's superb song, No Man's Land. If I wear poppies this weekend, there'll be two, red and white ....

This might be seen part two of the observations I offered after France's semi-final win against Belgium. It is reproduced with the consent of the editor of The National, for which I wrote the piece at dawn on Monday.

Le Figaro's post-final headline borrowed the second line of La Marseillaise - le jour de gloire est arrivé - and I do not think translation is necessary. But can that glory have its own translation, inspiring decent and enduring relations between all of the people who make French society today? It's a tough question - the Black-Blanc-Beur (black/white/Arab) spirit of 1998 evaporated within a few weeks of the famous un-deux-trois-zéro victory over Brazil - but we can, and must hope, 4-2 against Croatia yields better results ...

A much-travelled young Emirati friend, with a lifelong passion for top-level football, neatly captured one of the heartening truths of France’s admirable 4-2 World Cup victory over Croatia.

As the match approached the end, with Les Bleus leading in reasonable comfort, she posted a telling social media message: “Africa is about to win the World Cup.”

I wrote this for The National (Abu Dhabi) after France's semi-final win and before England's exit. The final is now easy for me - an Anglo-French household will find common cause ...

When President Emmanuel Macron entered the French dressing room in St Petersburg after Les Bleus’ winning World Cup semi-final against Belgium, a moment of mutual respect offered a glimmer of hope that sport can generate a sense of unity.

“Bravo, gentlemen,” he told players representing several strands of France’s multicultural society. “France is drowning in happiness thanks to you.”

The National asked me to write about the curious case of Tariq Ramadan, the renowned Islamic scholar, academic and commentator who currently sits in a French jail held on suspicion of raping at least two women. A third French case is also the subject of inquiry and other women, in Switzerland and the US, have made allegations of sexual abuse since the first cases came to light. The National's editor kindly permits reproduction of my work here ...

The first of several women to accuse the Swiss academic Tariq Ramadan of rape says she wants neither to ruin nor humiliate him, but to spare others what she claims to have suffered.

We all have them but our feelings about their use and abuse are mixed. I am guilty of using mine excessively; so are many others. In France, Emmanuel Macron's government has decided enough is enough and will ban pupils from using mobile phones at school from the start of the next academic year. From my column for The National* ...

A quick look around fellow passengers on the Dubai or Paris metros, or the London Tube, reveals a uniform pattern. Nearly everyone is on a mobile phone.

Much less often these days do we hear a traveller blurt out: “I’m on the train” to someone at the other end of the train line and phone line. It was once a jarring accompaniment to any public transport journey. How much more discreet to text and how much simpler when the message amounts to an apology for being late home.